. some cases thereon decided in the Law Courts) Discover new books on Goodreads See if your friends have read any of John Mensah Sarbah's books Join Goodreads He also proposed that native tribunals should be given a definite and well-defined place in the judicial structure. [10] In addition to the news of successful anti-colonial movements, the Gold Coast ARPS was interested in the growing formation of pan-African conferences that sought to discuss "questions 'affecting the Native races'". [6], The formation of the Gold Coast ARPS came at a period during the late 19th century in which the educated Gold Coast elite were systematically barred from high-ranking positions in the colonial government. He made a lasting mark on national life in politics, education, and law. At the inaugural anniversary lecture and thanks-giving service in Cape Coast organized by the John Mensah Sarbah Memorial Legacy Foundation on the theme: The life of legacy of John Mernsah Sarbah; education as a catalyst to economic emancipation came the business side of the late lawyer. In 1963, the Great Hall at University of Ghana Legon is named after him in his memory for his educational works including the founding of the Fanti Public Schools Limited which eventually became the present Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast designing the schools crest and motto Dwen hwe kwan think ahead of time. News ), Opera News is a free to use platform and the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent, reflect or express the views of Opera News. S. Tenkorang, "John Mensah Sarbah, 18641910", in. ", "Ghana - Early Manifestations of Nationalism", "Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast", The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities, "This Is Our Land: Land, Policy, Resistance, and Everyday Life in Colonial Southern Ghana, 18947", "Producing a Received View of Gold Coast Elite Society? << All rights reserved. [3], J.W. /Linearized 1 Required fields are marked *. /S 144 He touted the late lawyer as one who represented the largest number of three thousand cases at the Cape Coast Supreme court in his days. The ARPS remained the voice of colonized Africans until its demise in the 1930s. Eventually, the Forest Bill led to the establishment of forest reserves. >> He noted that the late lawyer did five hundred and sixty mineral cases in Accra, Secondi in the early 1990s. The delegation, which Sarbah refused out of modesty to lead, went to London in 1898, and succeeded in getting the Lands Bill disallowed. According to him, the late Sarbah was a visionary business man with a wide array of businesses ranging from palm Oil, Cocoa investment and mining in the Gold Coast. /Type /Catalog /TrimBox [0.0000 0.0000 595.2756 841.8898] ". stream /L 52559 John Mensah Sarbah CMG (3 June 1864 - 27 November 1910) was a lawyer and political leader in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). (His suggestion was to be adopted in 1951.) Although the formation of the ARPS was due to the cumulative effects of colonial rule in the late nineteenth century, the immediate reason for its formation was the Lands Bill. 0000019978 00000 n On his return home, Sarbah, who was generally known as Kofi Mensah, built up a lucrative practice. He was the eldest son of John Sarbah (1834-1892), a merchant of Anomabu and Cape Coast and a member of the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast, and his wife Sarah. John Peter Allotey Hammond was the Secretary and later a member of the Coussey Committee. Concerning the competence and compellability of a spouse as a witness in a criminal trial in which the other spouse was the accused, he proposed that no distinction should-be made between the spouse in Christian marriage and the spouse in a customary marriage (The distinction, as he-had suggested, was to be abolished in 1960). Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. On his return home, John Mensah Sarbah, who was generally known as Kofi Mensah, built up a lucrative practice. The Wesley Brothers of Oxford University (1700s), Razia Sultan of Medieval India (786 Years Ago), The Assassination of Legendary Dancehall Dance Pioneer Gerald Bogle Levy. September 4, 1887: Arrival of John Mensah Sarbah, first Ghanaian called to the English Bar, September 7, 1817: Anglo-Ashanti Treaty signed between Osei Bonsu and African Company of Merchants, September 1, 1966: The National Liberation Council (NLC) establishes a commission to propose a new constitution. He revealed that when he died in 1910 there was evidence in his will that he had shares in Ashanti Obuasi mines out of which he left shares for his mother and sisters and part for his wife and children. The ARPS remained the voice of colonized Africans until its demise in the 1930s. The activities of the ARPS were not always an all-male affair. John Mensah Sarbah was one of the most prominent nationalists of the Gold Coast in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The African intelligentsia had the full support of the chiefs, especially from the inception of the ARPS to about 1912, when Governor Hugh Clifford effectively implemented the indirect rule, which used the chiefs as the main agents of local administration. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The ARPS delegation met with Joseph Chamberlain (18361914), the colonial secretary, with whom they discussed the questions of land, taxation, and constitutional reform. As a lawyer, Sarbah was interested in spreading knowledge of Fante laws and of the Fante Constitution. . 0000030321 00000 n His successors in this field were J. E. Casely Hayford, andDr. J. John Mensah Sarbah was educated at the Cape Coast Wesleyan School, and at Taunton School Devon, England. Sarbah was the eldest son of John Sarbah, a successful merchant, and was subsequently well-educated. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Having successfully forced the colonial government to abort the implementation of the Lands Bill, the ARPS tackled other objectionable colonial policies, including forced labor, taxation, indirect rule, and the lack of African representation on the Legislative Council. [2][7][8], In 1904 he married Marion Wood from Accra and they had three children. /Type /Page He encouraged farmers to grow cocoa and gave them loans for the purpose. /Parent 20 0 R %%EOF This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Any/all written content and images displayed are provided by the blogger/author, appear herein as submitted by the blogger/author and are unedited by Opera News. Sarbah was interested in promoting secondary education because he felt that it was the best way to enable Africans to gain the respect of the civilized world. 0000021045 00000 n Jacob Kwaw Wilson Sey (10 March 1832 - 22 May 1902), also known as Kwaa Bonyi, was a colonial era Fante artisan, farmer, philanthropist, nationalist and the first recorded indigenous multi-millionaire on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Sarbah had opposed such proposals before, and people had expected him to oppose the amendment outright. >> John Mensah Sarbah also worked hard to promote secondary education. In 1901 he was appointed to the Legislative Council. Sarbah-Picot House at Mfantsipim School is named after him. It is the aim of the foundation set by his descendants is to promote educational scholarships and digitally archived the works of the late John Mensah Sarbah. The connection of the Gold Coast ARPS with the global movements for freedom and rights for people of colour began with interactions between the leaders of Gold Coast ARPS and other anti-imperialist and pan-Africanist leaders abroad and ended with Gold Coast ARPS involvement with the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress. /ProcSet [/PDF /Text] 0000019838 00000 n /N 3 Please accept by clicking on the 'Accept' button on your screen. But the chief justice did not accept the proposal, and in this respect matters have not improved much since Sarbahs day, in spite of the fact that all judges are now Africans. << For much of the southern regions of the Gold Coast, the ARPS gained political ascendancy because of its ability to capitalize on publicity in the local newspapers. Sarbah was the eldest son of John Sarbah, a successful merchant, and was subsequently well-educated. Among other things, the ARPS hoped to make sure that various bills and colonial policies involving taxation, labor, and constitutional changes would not burden the Africans. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It also vigorously campaigned for improvements in education, sanitation, health, and the provision of infrastructure. Although colonial society was dominated by men, throughout the period of colonial rule several women's groups teamed up with men or supported men in anticolonial protest politics. Sarbah returned the guinea fee which the ARPS gave him for his work, as he regarded it as an honour to serve his country. They sent Sarbah to argue against its passage in the Legislative Council. The leader of the Ahanta tribe in the Western Region and a Ghanaian king Badu Bonsu II was executed in 1838 and the head cut off by the Dutch. As a lawyer, John Mensah Sarbah was interested in spreading knowledge of Fanti laws and of theFanti Constitution. His first act in this direction was to found a Dutton scholarship at Taunton School in memory of his younger brother, Joseph Dutton Sarbah, who had died there in 1892. 6578), pp. He became disillusioned with what he deemed to be injustice in governance from the British Crown toward the Ghanaian people and felt that the actions of the colonial system should be checked. /Font << /F13 26 0 R /F19 32 0 R /F25 38 0 R /F31 44 0 R >> His father sent him to England when he was sixteen to continue his education. Opera News does not consent to nor does it condone the posting of any content that violates the rights (including the copyrights) of any third party, nor content that may malign, inter alia, any religion, ethnic group, organization, gender, company, or individual. 0000029963 00000 n John Mensah Sarbah (Author of Fanti customary laws, a brief introduction to the principles of the native laws and customs of the Fanti and Akan districts of the Gold Coast, with a . His Fanti Customary Laws is still regarded as an indispensable book for lawyers in Ghana. When for some financial reasons, the Wesleyan Mission closed down the Cape Coast Wesleyan School, he and some other nationalists revived it, financed it, and renamed it the Collegiate School. 0000014819 00000 n /Contents 25 0 R But his interest in politics, which he had shown during his student days in England, led him to take a more active part in political life. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. We promise to be discrete. This reform, too, has now been adopted. endobj John Mensah Sarbah was interested in promoting secondary education because he felt that it was the best way to enable Africans to gain the respect of the civilized world. He compiled and publishedFanti Law Reports in 1904, but this was incomplete because he was refused permission to take any more notes from court records. His first act in this direction was to found a Dutton scholarship at Taunton School in memory of his younger brother, Joseph Dutton Sarbah, who had died there in 1892. It was at the same time as the implementation of this ordinance that the Gold Coast Gold Coast ARPS began to lose some of their power, as they could no longer use the Gold Coast indigenous chiefs as leverage from which to gain funds. >> The Town Councils Ordinance dealt with the levying of municipal house rates. The ARPS opposed the Lands Bill of 1897, which threatened the traditional system of African land tenure. In 1892 his father died, arid he also took over his fattiers business. He was interested in promoting agriculture, and wrote an article on The Oil Palm and Its Products in 1909. However, the middle class intellectuals who supported the Society broke with Nkrumah because they were less committed to full-scale revolutionary effort. John Mensah Sarbah was called to the English Bar in 1887. The ARPS opposed the Lands Bill of 1897, which threatened the traditional system of African land tenure, and sent John Mensah Sarbah to argue against its passage in the Legislative Council. The great Ghanaian nationalist John Mensah Sarbah, born on June 3 1864, died November 6 1910. Call: +233558280780, Your email address will not be published. From the late nineteenth century to the immediate post-World War I period, the society gradually sowed the seeds of revolutionary nationalism not only in the Gold Coast but in the West African region as a whole as its members contributed to the formation of the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) in 1919. "that every person may understand [the Lands Bill of 1897]. 22 0 obj /Pages 20 0 R John Mensah Sarbah returned the 400-guinea fee which the ARPS gave him because he felt that it was an honor to serve his country. C.F. Visit our, Akufo-Addo willing to legalize homosexuality - Inusah Fuseini. [4], The Gold Coast ARPS formed as a conglomerate of different groups of intellectuals in Cape Coast and Southern Ghana who sought to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the indigenous Gold Coast peoples from being usurped by the British colonial government. John Mensah Sarbah was a patriot, statesman and one of the most outstanding nationalists of the Gold Coast at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Sarbah House, at Mfantsipim, is named after him. He was a good churchman, and bought a pipe organ for the Methodist Church at Cape Coast. At the age of 23, he returned to the Gold Coast to set up a legal practice. /CropBox [0.0000 0.0000 595.2756 841.8898] In 1963, a residence hall of the University of Ghana was named Mensah Sarbah Hall in his honour for his services to education,[8] with a statue of John Mensah Sarbah is in front of it. [citation needed]. [5] The Gold Coast ARPS became a voice for the rights of indigenous peoples by both broadcasting their aims in their own newspaper, Gold Coast Aborigines, and advocating on behalf of indigenous land rights by presenting the reasons for their dissent of the Lands Bill of 1897 in front of the Legislative Council. His suggestion, which was an improvement on the amendment, was not accepted. When the Gold Coast Native Jurisdiction Ordinance (1883) was being amended in 1910, Section 29 caused a stir among the people because they felt it would empower the governor to usurp the rights of the people in the destooling of chiefs. [7] It was this exclusion, in part, that fuelled both the "cultural nationalism" and "anti-colonial political activity" that led to the creation of the Gold Coast ARPS in 1897. He encouraged farmers to grow cocoa and gave them loans for the purpose. He died in 1910, without, however, making any provision in his will for the education of his children, probably because he believed that the Akan family system would cater for them. [10] The Gold Coast ARPS's interest in the affairs of people of colour abroad was predicated on the notion of the salience of race beyond the confines of an African context and the global prevalence of racial discrimination. [2] He subsequently entered Lincoln's Inn in London to train as a barrister, and was called to the English bar in 1887 the first African from his country to qualify in this way. Early Life John Mensah Sarbah was a good legislator, He was nominated as a member of the Legislative Council by the governor, Sir Mathew Nathan (term of office, 1900- 1904), in 1901 and sat except for a short break, as a member until his death. Hutchison's Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities1", "The Aborigines Society, Kwame Nkrumah and the 1945 Pan-African Congress", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gold_Coast_Aborigines%27_Rights_Protection_Society&oldid=1077681957, 1890s establishments in Gold Coast (British colony), Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Asante, S. K. B. 0000034629 00000 n 0000034351 00000 n /ID [<28bf4e5e4e758a4164004e56fffa0108><28bf4e5e4e758a4164004e56fffa0108>] /Length 296 [9] In 1903, Sarbah and William Edward Sam promoted an enterprise called the Fanti Public Schools Limited and Sarbah also helped establish the Fanti National Education Fund, which aimed to improve educational facilities in the country and awarded scholarships. [7] As part of the emergence of cultural nationalism during the late 19th century, members of the educated elite throughout the Western African region began to return to their traditional roots by either reclaiming their "original African names, when these could be discovered" or "new African names when they could not".
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